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Month: July 2013

Cosmic Horror Skills at Novel Length: A Review of Laird Barron’s The Croning

Cosmic Horror Skills at Novel Length: A Review of Laird Barron’s The Croning

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The Croning-smallAs regular readers of Black Gate are fully aware, the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons has had a huge influence upon post-1970s fantasy writers and fans. A case in point, Tor.com is currently delivering a series of posts exploring Gary Gygax’s (the original creator of Dungeons and Dragons) suggested readings in Appendix N of the first edition Dungeon Masters Guide (the first two are here and here). The authors in this list are the usual suspects in fantasy literature: Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, etc. But one author that Gygax includes, that may be a surprise to some, is the horror writer Howard Philips Lovecraft.

However, veteran fantasy and other genre fans will likely see no incongruence here. For example, as a 13-year old intently reading the original Dungeons and Dragons book Deities and Demigods, I found the Cthulhu mythos section, based on Lovecraft’s horror fiction, to be just as inspiring for fantasy role-playing as the Greek and Norse mythos sections. I believe many others will agree that Lovecraftian horror has been a part of the sundry smorgasbord of fantasy for some time.

As veteran genre fans also well know, Lovecraft has spawned a cadre of authors who can be clearly identified as “Lovecraftian.” Such authors, in my opinion, fall into two broad and general groups. One group imitates Lovecraft by using the same sorts of tropes that he did: forbidden eldritch books, gibbous moons, tentacled monsters, mad cultists, etc. The second group writes more in the mood of Lovecraft, giving a general sense of nihilistic dread, sometimes called “cosmic horror.” I personally favor the latter group though there are some fine examples of the first.

Laird Barron is a fairly new horror writer who fits the squarely into the latter Lovecraftian group. His short story collections The Imago Sequence and Occultation are both often heralded as must-haves for horror fans, receiving the 2007 and 2010 Shirley Jackson awards, respectively. Barron’s stories range from eerie to the utterly terrifying, presenting a universe that gives small peeks into entities and realities that are at best indifferent to Earth and humanity’s fragile existence and sanity.

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New Treasures: Katya’s World by Jonathan L. Howard

New Treasures: Katya’s World by Jonathan L. Howard

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Katyas World-smallThose of you with sharp eyes last week noticed that, buried among the many intriguing titles in the Strange Chemistry Book Cover Montage we published on June 29, were the latest novels from Black Gate author Jonathan L. Howard.

Jonathan is a terrifically talented fantasy author. We published two of his stories featuring Kyth the Taker, the brilliant thief whose commissions inevitably involve her in sorcerous intrigue: “The Shuttered Temple” in Black Gate 15 and “The Beautiful Corridor” (BG 13.)

Jonathan’s first novels were the popular Johannes Cabel books: Johannes Cabal the Necromancer (2010), Johannes Cabal the Detective (2010), and the upcoming Fear Institute. But one series doesn’t appear to be enough for Jonathan. Here’s the 411 on the first book of The Russalka Chronicles:

The distant and unloved colony world of Russalka has no land, only the raging sea. No clear skies, only the endless storm clouds. Beneath the waves, the people live in pressurised environments and take what they need from the boundless ocean. It is a hard life, but it is theirs and they fought a war against Earth to protect it. But wars leave wounds that never quite heal, and secrets that never quite lie silent.

Katya Kuriakova doesn’t care much about ancient history like that, though. She is making her first submarine voyage as crew; the first nice, simple journey of what she expects to be a nice, simple career.

There is nothing nice and simple about the deep black waters of Russalka, however; soon she will encounter pirates and war criminals, see death and tragedy at first hand, and realise that her world’s future lies on the narrowest of knife edges. For in the crushing depths lies a sleeping monster, an abomination of unknown origin, and when it wakes, it will seek out and kill every single person on the planet.

The second title in the series, Katya’s War, is due in October.

Katya’s World was published by Strange Chemistry on November 13, 2012. It is 320 pages in paperback, priced at $9.99 ($6.99 for the digital edition). Learn more at the Strange Chemistry website, and read Jonathan’s thoughts on writing the Johannes Cabel books right here at Black Gate.

EN World Announces the 9 Most Anticipated RPGs of 2013

EN World Announces the 9 Most Anticipated RPGs of 2013

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The folks at role-playing game news and reviews site EN World have published the results of their survey on the Top 9 Most Anticipated RPGs of 2013.

The survey was conducted on EN World, Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere. Only full tabletop roleplaying games — not adventures, settings, or other supplements — with a 2013 release date made it to the list. The results were published on June 27 and summarized in the nifty YouTube video below.

Some of the impending RPG releases for the year include Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition from Chaosium, Robin D. Laws’s Iron Age drama Hillfolk (Pelgrane Press), Shadowrun 5th Edition (Catalyst Game Lab), the highly anticipated Star Wars: Edge of the Empire from Fantasy Flight, Monte Cook’s Kickstarter phenomenon Numenera, the new Firefly RPG from Margaret Weis Productions, and the massive 13th Age by D&D designers Jonathan Tweet and Rob Heinsoo. That’s enough hints; now here’s the video with all nine winners.

You Think You’ve Got Problems? Where’d I Put That Wand . . .

You Think You’ve Got Problems? Where’d I Put That Wand . . .

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BuffyWhen dealing with sorcery, often the precise source or methodology of the magic is part of the premise of the novel itself – it’s what makes this place or that different from the world we live in. But the real function of any plot device – including magic – is to complicate the lives of your characters. Adding conflict and tension to otherwise humdrum lives is what writers do. It’s our job, and sorcery is one of the tools that fantasy writers have at our disposal.

At the same time we’re using magic to solve problems, like technology does, we’re using magic to create problems. Like technology does.

Just think about what the presence of magic does to that old stand-by, the coming-of-age novel. Being a teenager isn’t bad enough? Coming to terms with the world as it really is, and what your part in that world might be – that’s not hard enough on you? Let’s make you a wizard as well. It’s no coincidence that authors often have magical abilities appear at puberty. And yes, that’s using magic as a metaphor.

We don’t think of her as a wizard, but other than Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is probably the best known specially-empowered teenager. Creator Joss Whedon makes the metaphor fairly obvious, as Buffy suffers through her normal-world coming-of-age simultaneously with her other-world coming-of-age.  Like Harry Potter, Buffy has to learn about herself and her relationship to the world as well as her powers – and that with those powers comes responsibility.

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Blogging Sax Rohmer’s President Fu Manchu, Part Two

Blogging Sax Rohmer’s President Fu Manchu, Part Two

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Invisible PresidentPresident Cassell 50sSax Rohmer’s The Invisible President was originally serialized in Collier’s from February 29 to May 16, 1936. It was published in book form later that year by Cassell in the UK and Doubleday in the US under the title President Fu Manchu. The novel is the first in the series to fictionalize real events with characters based on familiar figures in the US in the 1930s such as Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin. More than one critic has noted the story may have influenced the classic Cold War conspiracy thriller, The Manchurian Candidate.

The hotel where Sir Denis Nayland Smith and his FBI counterpart, Mark Hepburn, are staying is thrown into a panic over the unexpected arrival of James Richet, Abbot Donegal’s secretary, who is wanted by the authorities as a member of the Si-Fan. Richet arrives by taxi outside the hotel before collapsing. His corpse is discovered inexplicably covered with mysterious red spots.

When first introduced, Richet came under suspicion for no better reason than Smith detecting Eurasian blood in his background. Strangely, Smith’s valet Fey is also Eurasian and while other characters sometimes express doubts concerning Fey’s loyalty, Sir Denis never questions it. One wishes that Rohmer would have given Smith a more concrete reason to suspect Richet other than racial profiling.

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Mythic Delirium, Clockwork Phoenix, Kickstarter & You

Mythic Delirium, Clockwork Phoenix, Kickstarter & You

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KickPlayHello, Black Gate denizens! Has it really been a year since I posted here?

Just about. The last time I did a guest post here, it was to talk about a Kickstarter I was running for an anthology called Clockwork Phoenix 4. In that campaign, I asked for $5,000 to fund the publication of the volume and ultimately raised more than $10,000.

And guess what: all those backers have received their rewards, and the anthology has been published.

You can buy it on Amazon for Kindle and in trade paperback, and in numerous other places. The reviews have been terrific – check them out here if you don’t believe me.

Ever since the campaign finished, Black Gate overlord John O’Neill has been asking me for a guest post in which I’d talk about what I’ve learned about Kickstarter. I’ve always intended to do so, but I’ve never been able to budget the time.

So here’s one lesson: A Kickstarter is all-consuming, both when you’re running it and afterward.

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Goth Chick News: They’re Heeeerrrreee… Again

Goth Chick News: They’re Heeeerrrreee… Again

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image002At the end of June, MGM and Twentieth Century Fox announced they will co-finance and distribute a remake of the 1982 horror classic, Poltergeist, causing fans all over the globe to let out a howl of collective agony.

Any movie that can send practically an entire generation into therapy over a stuffed clown and television static should be left entirely alone.

Seriously.

But of course Hollywood cannot seem to keep its hands to itself.

Gil Kenan (Monster House) is set to direct from a screenplay by writer David Lindsay-Abaire (Oz: The Great and Powerful) and the film is being produced by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) and Rob Tapert (The Posession) via Ghost House Pictures.

Okay, the credentials had made us feel only slightly better before the synopsis sent us right back into a tailspin.

A family man called Eric Bowen (rather than Steve Freeling – GC) moves his wife and kids to a new town in the hopes of a fresh start, a plan which goes horribly wrong when his daughter, Madeleine, is abducted by evil forces.

Wow… original.

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New Treasures: Against the Slave Lords

New Treasures: Against the Slave Lords

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Against the Slave LordsI think the release of Against the Slave Lords is cause for celebration.

Against the Slave Lords is a hardcover collection of four interconnected Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules, the A1 – A4 series Scourge of the Slave Lords, originally published in 1980 and 1981. It includes new forewords by the four surviving designers. Lawrence Schick, for example, relates how his inspiration came from fellow author and dungeon master Harold Johnson:

In his campaign one night, Harold had our characters get captured, whereupon he took away all our stuff and threw us in a dungeon. The challenge: escape without relying on all our carefully hoarded adventuring gear. Were our characters people with skills and brains, or were they really just lists of equipment?

It also includes the maps and all of the original black-and-white interior art. Most intriguing of all, there’s also a brand new fifth adventure that sets the stage for the entire series, published here for the first time. Danger at Darkshelf Quarry is designed for low-level players (levels 1-3).

Why celebrate? It signals that publishers Wizards of the Coast are serious about bringing the canonical works of first edition D&D back into print. I was plenty excited at their last premium hardcover reprint, Dungeons of Dread, as it collected some of the most famous adventures written by AD&D‘s creator, Gary Gygax — including Tomb of Horrors and The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (still one of my favorite adventure modules of all time) — all of which were long out of print and hard to find.

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“Hi-yo, Silver! Awayzzzzzz…” The Lone Ranger Defeats Insomnia!

“Hi-yo, Silver! Awayzzzzzz…” The Lone Ranger Defeats Insomnia!

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TheLoneRanger2013PosterThe Lone Ranger (2013)
Directed by Gore Verbinski. Starring Silver, Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, Ruth Wilson, James Badge Dale, Helena Bonham Carter.

At the climax of the new cinematic exploit of the Lone Ranger, director Gore Verbinski finally busts out his skills at orchestrating thrilling and intricately choreographed action set pieces. He hits viewers with a top-notch closer aboard a train full of silver roaring around a Mousetrap structure of parallel tracks. The sudden eruption of “The William Tell Overture” on the theater sound system stirs listless audience members awake. For a few minutes, The Lone Ranger feels like The Lone Ranger: old-fashioned Western thrills starring one of the great Do-Gooder heroes. A few folks in the audience clap. Some notice they haven’t finished their popcorn.

Then everybody leaves the multiplex to go home and catch up on their nap times, which they never realized they needed.

That’s the most damning criticism I can lob at this new Lone Ranger: I nearly nodded off twice during my screening. I say this as a hardcore fan of the Western genre, a nostalgia monster, and a fellow who has never before fallen asleep during a theatrical showing of a movie. Not even Meet Joe Black. The only other time I came as close to the narcoleptic fit I experienced here was due to an unfortunate application of medicine that carried warnings regarding heavy machinery.

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How to Run a Successful Kickstarter – Part I

How to Run a Successful Kickstarter – Part I

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This is Part I of a two-part series on How to Run a Successful Novel Kickstarter

For years I’d been planning on pulling together my short fiction into a collection of some sort to get it out and into the world. And for years I hemmed and hawed about actually doing it. I didn’t have the time. It wouldn’t do well. My time would be better spent on my next novel. You’ve probably said many of the same things yourself.

Well, late last year, a few things changed. One, I wrapped up my debut trilogy, The Lays of Anuskaya, which finally freed up a bit of time for me to work on something besides novel-length work. And two, Kickstarter happened. What do I mean by that? Well, Kickstarter had been around for a few years, but more and more I was seeing successful projects being started and completed on the platform. I saw how impressive some of them were as well, how caught up I got in the “community” that successful projects could bring about. I saw how savvy some project owners were about running the Kickstarters during the ‘Starter itself.

And it got me to thinking: it may take some time and effort, but if they can do it, so can I.

And if I can do it, so can you.

The first Kickstarter I ran was for Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories, my premiere short story collection.

The second Kickstarter I ran was for the third book in my Lays of Anuskaya Trilogy, The Flames of Shadam Khoreh, and it came about all quick-like. That is, I hadn’t planned on running a second Kickstarter, but there were a few, well, “issues” with my publisher, Night Shade Books.

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